I think have crossed the line from "imperfect parent" to "maybe-someone-should-call-social-services".
This morning something happened to ChunkyMonkey. This something gave him a bump and a cut on his forehead. But I have no idea what the something was.
We were getting ready to take Ironflower to school. Putting on shoes and jackets, finding Ironflower's school bag, grabbing my sunglasses and whatnot. ChunkyMonkey wandered into the bathroom. Since I could still see most of him and I just wanted 30 seconds to put on my own freaking shoes, I let him stay in there. Just as leaned in to get him, he dropped and began crying. I assumed I'd bumped his behind with the door, because I'm kind of uncoordinated like that.
I scooped him up, hugged him and deposited him on the step. I put on his shoes and jacket. I ran to get Ironflower's lunch bag and told the big kids to stand still for just one freaking second so I could make sure I had everything.
Then Ironflower noticed that ChunkyMonkey's head was bleeding.
That's right. SHE noticed. I, who had put on his shoes and coat (and was annoyed that he was STILL crying), had not noticed.
What kind of mother doesn't notice a bleeding head wound? With a bump to match? What kind of mother did not see this happen when she was 3 feet away?
I swear that he was facing away from the door when I opened it wider. I swear there were no sharp objects in his hands or anywhere in the bathroom. I may be lax about cabinet locks and the like, but we don't have spikes sticking out of the walls, either.
I'm not sure what's worse; that I don't know what hurt him or that I didn't notice it for a good 3 minutes.
Ironflower once did the same thing to her head on the side corner of the coffee table (under where we had the bumpers, of course), but at least I noticed it immediately. I saw it happen. Lovebug never cut his head open, but he bruised it plenty of times. And I noticed it immediately, every time (especially during the 2 year phase where his response to frustration was to bang his head on the nearest hard material).
My poor ChunkyMonkey. He's got such an inattentive mom.
How do people handle having more than 3 children? Is there a higher accident rate for children who are third or fourth in the birth order? And what dangerous object is skulking around my bathroom?
